by hoot-admin | Feb 28, 2017 | The Year in Flowers
The southern red cedar is a low-maintenance tree that makes an elegant statement in South Florida home landscapes. This densely-foliated, wide, oval evergreen grows fairly quickly, reaching heights up to 40 feet with a 25-foot spread. Not actually a cedar, this tree...
by hoot-admin | Feb 27, 2017 | The Year in Flowers
One of the most fragrant vines of South Florida, confederate jasmine is covered in spring with sweet-scented flowers. The rest of the year this is a handsome vine with small, glossy, deep-green leaves that can provide privacy with the right support. Use it on fences,...
by hoot-admin | Feb 26, 2017 | The Year in Flowers
Desert Rose is a low-maintenance succulent that produces dozens of beautiful trumpet-shaped flowers in shades of pink, rose, or white. It’s usually grwon in containers that can be brought inside when temperatures drop below 40 degrees. It can be grown as a...
by hoot-admin | Feb 25, 2017 | The Year in Flowers
Here we go round the mulberry bush, The mulberry bush, The mulberry bush. Here we go round the mulberry bush So early in the morning. This nursery rhyme and children’s song, the tune of which is also used for “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and...
by hoot-admin | Feb 24, 2017 | The Year in Flowers
Panda plant, kalanchoe tomentosa, is a drought-tolerant plant with dense hairs that slow the movement of air across the leaf surface, thereby reducing water loss through transpiration. In the dry environment in which it lives, it must conserve what little water it can...
by hoot-admin | Feb 23, 2017 | The Year in Flowers
Surprise…the Christmas cactii are abloom in February! I noticed what looked like buds on the cactii over the last few weeks, thinking, “They can’t be buds. Must be the new growth.” This weekend, they burst open with beautiful blooms.
by hoot-admin | Feb 22, 2017 | The Year in Flowers
Three species of sow thistle grow in Florida — spiny sow thistle (Sonchus asper), common sow thistle (Sonchus oleraceous) and field sow thistle (Sonchus arvensis) — but none is the type of plant most people want in their yard. Even though all three species are edible,...
by hoot-admin | Feb 21, 2017 | The Year in Flowers
The papaya bud bloomed all yellow, not white like we expected. Papayas have many health benefits: Papaya is rich in antioxidant nutrients such as carotenes, flavonoids and vitamin C, as well as vitamin B (folate and pantothenic acid). It is also a good source of fiber...
by hoot-admin | Feb 20, 2017 | The Year in Flowers
Surinam cherry is an excellent shrub for screens or hedges, with smooth, shiny, aromatic leaves which are bright red when young. This lends a reddish cast to a clipped hedge during the growing season. The small, fragrant, white flowers are followed by one-inch...
by hoot-admin | Feb 19, 2017 | The Year in Flowers
A pineapple plant flowers only once, and produces one pineapple. Then it dies. But before it dies it also produces offspring. Suckers are little plantlets that grow between the leaves of the mature pineapple. When the suckers are about 18-in. long, you can break them...
by hoot-admin | Feb 18, 2017 | Uncategorized
Crabgrass is a high-quality summer annual forage grass that is well adapted to Florida’s sandy soils. While considered an invasive weed in lawns and agriculture, it is a valuable summer forage crop, and can be used in a rotation as pasture for livestock grazing...
by hoot-admin | Feb 17, 2017 | The Year in Flowers
Thought to be a cross between a lemon and a sweet orange, Meyer lemons were brought from China in 1908 by Frank Meyer, a USDA plantsperson. The rich orange-yellow Meyer lemon fruits provide a sweeter alternative to common lemons while bringing color and interest to...
